John Spriggs is retiring from skiing after this year

Really don’t care, I know he was a mid level pro for a bunch of years but his antics off the ski hill have soured my opinion of him. But like most non-super pros, at some point they have to grow up and get a real job

People fuck up, it happens. I believe everyone deserves a chance to do right their wrongs. Right now John spriggs looks like hes having a great time skiing and doing it better than ever for himself. I dont know the guy personally, no clue what hes really like. He put out a banger segment this past year, and from what I've read about him, it sounds like hes trying to get his act together again and is succeeding. Whered you hear he's 'retiring'?

RparrI've always thought pros "retiring" to be a weird thing. They're still going to ski, and their day to day lives will probably hardly change. Why even "announce" retirement?

Retiring from being a pro. Being a professional skier isn't just some sort of loose concept, people pay them to ski and put out media.

When a pro retires, they are going to step out of the spotlight - stop taking money to produce content / compete - and simply start skiing to enjoy themselves.

If they don't make an official retirement announcement, but stop trying hard they would burn bridges with their sponsors. Many of these people would be looking for a job in the industry post-retirement so not burning bridges is an excellent way to help with that.

Mr.BishopRetiring from being a pro. Being a professional skier isn't just some sort of loose concept, people pay them to ski and put out media.

When a pro retires, they are going to step out of the spotlight - stop taking money to produce content / compete - and simply start skiing to enjoy themselves.

If they don't make an official retirement announcement, but stop trying hard they would burn bridges with their sponsors. Many of these people would be looking for a job in the industry post-retirement so not burning bridges is an excellent way to help with that.

I think that was his point though, was Spriggs the calibre of skiier that was actually getting a paycheck? I love how people around here always imply skiing is some how different, when the "kiss the ring" aspect of being a pro is way worse here than literally any other sport.

mulzI think that was his point though, was Spriggs the calibre of skiier that was actually getting a paycheck? I love how people around here always imply skiing is some how different, when the "kiss the ring" aspect of being a pro is way worse here than literally any other sport.

Yeah, of course he is!

That is why I'm posting, doing my best to actually speak truth instead of allow misinformation to be spread. I know the brands personally that sponsor him, and can 100% confirm Spriggs is being paid as a professional skier.

Mr.BishopRetiring from being a pro. Being a professional skier isn't just some sort of loose concept, people pay them to ski and put out media.

When a pro retires, they are going to step out of the spotlight - stop taking money to produce content / compete - and simply start skiing to enjoy themselves.

If they don't make an official retirement announcement, but stop trying hard they would burn bridges with their sponsors. Many of these people would be looking for a job in the industry post-retirement so not burning bridges is an excellent way to help with that.

this is a really good explanation. It also can be to let any followers or fans know that they aren't getting lazy but moving on from producing content.

Morelthis is a really good explanation. It also can be to let any followers or fans know that they aren't getting lazy but moving on from producing content.

That is actually a pretty good point - I mean even if you never made it, you likely have told friends, family and followers that you were pursuing the life dream of being a professional skier. There is likely a lot of self-imposed pressure which an athlete would put upon themselves to deliver, and officially stating that you're going to move on from that dream could take a lot of pressure off of skiing.

I mean, I tried to be a pro but totally failed at it. There wasn't social media back then so you didn't need to announce changes, but there was an official moment in my head where I officially realized that I was never going to make it and that I was OK with giving it up.

After I stopped telling people I was going to be a pro, and then mentally "retired" my entire relationship changed with skiing. I never felt guilty that I wasn't pushing it every day, and it became much easier to just go out and have fun.

Mr.BishopThat is actually a pretty good point - I mean even if you never made it, you likely have told friends, family and followers that you were pursuing the life dream of being a professional skier. There is likely a lot of self-imposed pressure which an athlete would put upon themselves to deliver, and officially stating that you're going to move on from that dream could take a lot of pressure off of skiing.

I mean, I tried to be a pro but totally failed at it. There wasn't social media back then so you didn't need to announce changes, but there was an official moment in my head where I officially realized that I was never going to make it and that I was OK with giving it up.

After I stopped telling people I was going to be a pro, and then mentally "retired" my entire relationship changed with skiing. I never felt guilty that I wasn't pushing it every day, and it became much easier to just go out and have fun.

I went to CU the same time as Matt Walker and was actually in a group project for an Entrepreneurship class together. I remember him saying something similar about being a pro skier and the pressure to keep ramping up the progression even when things start to get dangerous. Its cool how he was able to shift over into media with starting SLVSH.

Its actually kind of an interesting story, our Entrepreneurship project was for Tricktapes.com which was a concept that Andrew Wickes had come up with some time before. He and Walker were buddies and grew up in Aspen together. We flushed out the idea of an online multimedia platform for amateur skiers to share videos with the community and as a way to get noticed by sponsors. We worked out a lot of the details a pretty good degree and won the overall competition when we presented to some investors. After graduation Wickes and I briefly discussed moving forward with the project as one of the investors was interested and gave us his contact info. At the time though Wickes was progressing his Tech House DJ career and eventually moved to Berlin and Walker continued his ski career until SLVSH was founded. The SLVSH SLAPP app is actually almost a direct reboot of the Tricktapes.com concept. Im stoked for SLVSH and how its pushing ski media, but to this day I regret not working to move forward with putting it together at the time. There is actually an old link to the original concept on NS from about 10 yrs ago:

BigPurpleSkiSuitAfter watching tanner hall's movie this is depressing since he's still unreal

He's made some mistakes and did something bad but it appears he is past it and knows he was wrong when he got arrested, and it takes a good character to realize that. I think a lot of pros or people who were popular in the ski world sometimes get hit with that realization that skiing everyday and trying to make a living out of it might not be as sustainable as working for a living and still being able to chase passions when you can. Its kind of a part of growing up even if people think its a shitty feeling or not. It seems like a smart path to be able to provide for yourself and still be able to ski occasionally versus skiing everyday but also not really knowing if you're gonna be able to make rent or gotta scrounge change together for a cup of noodles or something.

It would be pretty hard to top his segments from this year.. It's not easy to have all the variables line up to get such banger BC shots. He stomped all his shit pretty hard in Here after. Huge S/O Tanner & Spriggs

Spriggs is an industry OG. I remember watching him throw down under the lights at the US Freeskiing Open way back in the day circa 2005. Prior to that, I remember his way old NS videos when he was just starting out, learning new tricks and such at Vail. He's been a great skier for a very long time and has likewise been a huge inspiration for me too during that period of time. I'm sure many others can say the same.

None of us can escape making mistakes in life either. I'm glad to see he is doing better and growing & progressing as a person in recent years. Learning never ends for any of us. And we shouldn't be quick to judge his mistakes. All of us make them. And when you do, it should reinforce the idea that you should never judge another or make a permanent assumption about them. We are all here to learn, even if its painful and temporarily damaging to our egos.